Catching Wishes
by mindcaster15
Summary: Nagato just can't believe in wishes. It will take some fireflies and a certain blue haired girl to convince him otherwise. Oneshot, slight PainxKonan


**I do not own Naruto. The writing is mine.**

**TTT**

The light jumped from here to there, and back again. Nagato watched with fascination that he usually held inside, not showing his friends. Yahiko wasn't with them that particular night, and he was alone with Konan.

"Have you never seen a firefly?" she asked with some surprise. She loved fireflies. Though she hated bugs, to her fireflies simply didn't count. They were special, and she knew something that nobody else didn't about them.

They had a secret mission.

"I have but…Not so many…" Nagato murmured. Konan gave a knowing smile. They were totally surrounded by the lighted insects, some she could feel brushing her skin. She didn't mind.

She caught one and gently opened her hand. She whispered to the bug and lifted it up to the sky. It flew away towards the moon, and she smiled. Now her wish was riding away, perhaps to even come true.

"What are you doing?" Nagato asked. He couldn't figure out why Konan would look so peaceful around bugs and why she had whispered to a thing that couldn't answer her. It just didn't make any sense. He caught one of his own and glanced down at it.

"Have you never heard the old story about fireflies?" Konan asked softly. Her bluish purple eyes shined brightly amongst the flames of a candle she had set down on the ground. She was more interested in the creatures circling her head then in the light she needed to see.

"I guess I haven't." Nagato replied, releasing his firefly. He got the feeling that if he had squashed it Konan might have tried to beat him to a bloody pulp.

"My mother used to tell it to me before she died." Konan's voice was so faint that Nagato had to strain to hear it. Talking of her long gone mother was something she hardly did, something _none_ of them really did.

"My mother used to say that if you catch a firefly, you must tell it your wish." She paused as she gently brushed one off of his sleeve. She gave him that bittersweet smile that he had come to love.

"And every wish that is told to the firefly rides on its back. Fireflies carry the wishes of so many people. If you squash a firefly, you squash the wishes of others to." She shrugged nonchalantly.

"Wishes don't come true though." Nagato said rather bitterly. He felt that familiar anger flare up inside of him. And after it, the feel of that deep pain that he knew would never leave him. The pain and the anger began to mix together, making him even more miserable.

_Yahiko's right! _He growled mentally. _One day they'll all pay!_

Konan watched him a moment. Sometimes he wondered if she could read minds, the way she just seemed to know what he was feeling. The bond that they shared ran deeper then what other children had. They shared something, and they both suffered for it.

"Perhaps not." Konan replied, glancing at the twinkling balls above her. "But they can still live. Whether its in our hearts.." She caught a firefly and set it in his hands. "Or on the back of a lighting bug."

She quietly slipped away from him, leaving him to ponder her words. She was good at knowing when he wished to be alone and when he needed company.

For a couple moments he held the firefly. He could feel the legs tickling his skin, and he imagined how it must feel, trapped in its sweaty hands. Slowly, he brought his face up to his hands.

He whispered a few words and released it into the starry night. After all, what could it hurt? It was just a bug.

Many years later, as he was slumped over dying, Nagato-or rather Pain now- saw something that caught his eye. No one else saw it. He wasn't sure if they could have.

A firefly, drifting its way into the sunshine, out into the day.

Of course the firefly he wished on was now gone, probably dead. He knew it was unrealistic but he felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth.

There was no doubt in his mind that it was his firefly from long ago.

TTT

**A little sad, but I seem to be better at those. Please leave a review!**


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